Harrison Bergeron

 Vonnegut, the author of Harrison Bergeron, commentaries, through the story, that as much as our unique qualities sometimes cut in-between us, our individuality should still be cherished, as though it is a gift. For without it everyone would be like everyone, the same, with nothing to discover. Showing your beautiful colors may captivate many people, while it may make other envious. In the story, that's where misunderstanding and hostility may start, creating unnecessary commotion. Then it lead to people looking for peace, and methods of living together so everyone would feel like they belonged. People with authority made everyone feel the same, by forcing them to become indistinguishable. An example would be in the book, where a dark age is mentioned,  ' "...pretty soon we'd be right back to the dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else." ' (p.133) This would mean everyone would finally be equal in every which way, as pleasant as it sounds, the author communicates that it really isn't. Even though our world right now isn't perfect, even though we thrive to make it be an utopia, it can never really be. Nothing can be perfect, it can come close, but not quite. But in our world, each person is their own and different being. We each have our own way of living that moves our civilization forward. Although all our thoughts run wild all the time, the thoughts differ from each other, and it's these train of thoughts and choices in our head that make us so different. Unlike in the story, where everything is focused on being equal to one another, thinking for oneself is pretty much impossible. 'And George, which his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by the law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.' (p. 130) The passage conveys that George is unable to use is intelligent mind to do anything. He could do so much good to the world, but is restricted from doing so. Not only that he isn't as smart as he could be, he really isn't himself. Some of the characteristics that make up the individual that was are gone, leaving holes to his identity. The holes slowly leak out the person he used to be, leaving an empty shell behind. Instead of empty shells walking around, Vonnegut is encouraging individuality through his story, as it one of the keys to living in an almost utopia. 

-Zara

"E M E R G I N G Q U a K E R." : Utopia? N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. <http://emergingquaker.blogspot.com/2011/04/utopia.html>.